ACC Accepts Notre Dame as New Member: I like the image this headline paints of Notre Dame waiting nervously in a chair across the desk from ACC commish John Swofford as he slowly leafs through the Irish's paperwork with a scowl, before finally, without a word or a change of expression, thwacking down a giant "APPROVED" stamp on the final page. When in fact Swofford was holding up a boombox blaring Peter Gabriel outside of the Golden Dome for a year. Curbing the enthusiasm a bit, the Irish are coming aboard as non-football members, so their status as gridiron independents will not change. But the arrangement will also obligate them to schedule five non-conference games per year against ACC opponents, a shift that was already underway – Notre Dame plays three ACC teams in 2012, plus future member Pittsburgh – and will now be formalized. The deal also calls for the conference to educate its hoops-centric fan bases on the proper etiquette for informing Domers that their highly coveted, tradition-rich program is IRRELEVANT.